ARTHUR O. MOLLNER 1936 OLYMPIC GAMES BASKETBALL

ARTHUR O. MOLLNER
1936 OLYMPIC GAMES
BASKETBALL
Copyright 1988
Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles
AN OLYMPIAN'S ORAL HISTORY
INTRODUCTION
Southern California has a long tradition of excellence in sports and leadership
in the Olympic Movement. The Amateur Athletic Foundation is itself the legacy
of the 1984 Olympic Games. The Foundation is dedicated to expanding the
understanding of sport in our communities. As a part of our effort, we have
joined with the Southern California Olympians, an organization of over 1,000
women and men who have participated on Olympic teams, to develop an oral
history of these distinguished athletes.
Many Olympians who competed in the Games prior to World War II agreed to
share their Olympic experiences in their own words. In the pages that follow,
you will learn about these athletes, and their experiences in the Games and in
life as a result of being a part of the Olympic Family.
The Amateur Athletic Foundation, its Board of Directors, and staff welcome
you to use this document to enhance your understanding of sport in our
community.
ANITA L. DE FRANTZ
President
Amateur Athletic Foundation
of Los Angeles
Member
Southern California Olympians
I
AN OLYMPIAN'S ORAL HISTORY
METHODOLOGY
Interview subjects Include Southern California Olympians who competed prior to
World War I I . Interviews were conducted between March 1987, and August
1988, and consisted of one to five sessions each. The interviewer conducted
the sessions in a conversational style and recorded them on audio cassette,
addressing the following major areas:
Family History
Date/place of birth; occupation of father/mother; siblings; family residence;
Education
Primary and secondary schools attended; college and post-collegiate education;
Sport-Specific Biographical Data
Subject's introduction to sport—age, event and setting of first formal
competition; coaches/trainers/others who influenced athletic development;
chronology of sports achievements; Olympic competition;
post-Olympic
involvement in sports;
General Biographical Data
Employment
retirement;
history;
marital
history;
children;
communities
of residence;
General Observations
Reactions and
reflections on Olympic experience;
modernization of sport;
attitudes on and involvement with the Olympic Movement; advice to youth and
aspiring athletes.
Interview transcripts were edited and may include additional material based on
subsequent conversations and/or subject's own editing.
ii
ARTHUR O. MOLLNER
1936 OLYMPIC GAMES - BERLIN
BASKETBALL
Gold Medalist
Interviewed:
May, 1988
Westlake Village, California
by George A. Hodak
ARTHUR O. MOLLNER
Interviewer: George A. Hodak
Hodak:
Today, I'm in Westlake Village, California, and have the good
fortune to be visiting with Art Mollner, a member of the 1936 gold
medal American basketball team. Before we talk of the Olympics, I'd
like you to talk about your family background a bit, Mr. Mollner.
First off, just give me your date and place of birth and then from
there tell me a bit about your parents, your childhood, education
and like matters.
Mollner:
I was born December 12, 1912, in Saranac Lake, New York. That's
in upper New York, about 30 miles from Lake Placid where the
Winter Olympics have been held. We left Saranac Lake about three
years later, in 1915 or 1916, to come to California.
Hodak:
What prompted your family to move to California?
Mollner:
Well, we were in Saranac Lake because Robert Louis Stevenson had
given land there for a tubercular hospital.
My dad had
tuberculosis, and the doctors there advised him to come to
California. My folks were in show business in New York. They
were on the Orpheum circuit. They had an act; they sang and
danced. My mother's name was Fougere.
Kodak:
She was of French descent?
Mollner:
She came from France. Anyway, their act was Fougere and Mollner.
So when my dad got sick from tuberculosis, we came out here. My
mother worked as a hairdresser, and my dad worked in a hotel for
awhile until he got real sick. Then when I was about eight or nine
years old he died. Later, my mother married a very good man, Carl
1
Johnson. What a tremendous guy he was! He was the most honest
man I ever knew. If he found a dime anyplace outside, he wouldn't
sleep until he found out who had dropped that dime. If it was
outside a store, he'd take it inside and say somebody will be coming
for this; not to impress anybody, but that's just the way he was.
He was the most honest man I ever met in my life. He was terrific
to my brother and I.
Hodak:
You only had one brother?
Mollner:
I had one brother. My brother died of cancer of the
something like the illness my dad had.
Hodak:
So where did you attend school in Los Angeles?
Mollner:
I went to Union Street grammar school and then I went to Sentous
Junior High, which was on Pico Boulevard near Figueroa. Then I
went to [ L . A . ] Poly High School, which was on Washington
Boulevard near Grand Street. I graduated from high school in the
summer of 1930.
Hodak:
Where did you develop an interest in basketball?
interest?
Mollner:
One of the best athletes I ever knew was a Mexican fellow named
Willie Aguilar. He really helped me. He got me interested in
baseball, track and basketball in junior high. And I really loved
basketball, played it all the time, so when I went to high school I
just kept playing basketball. And then I went to junior college after
graduating from Poly High School. I went to junior college and
played two years there.
Hodak:
Was that Los Angeles Junior College?
Mollner:
Yes, Los Angeles Junior College on Vermont Street near Santa
Monica Boulevard, where UCLA had been before it moved to
2
lung,
Who nurtured that
Westwood. It's now called L.A. City College. Then after I was
through with junior college, they were starting a team at Universal
Pictures. In those days they had the AAU—the Amateur Athletic
Union teams—but there were no pros. I played for the Shell Oil
Company club and we played the Universal Pictures team in the
championship game of a tournament. We lost the game, but they
asked me if I'd come out the next year with Universal. Jack Pierce
was a makeup man at Universal Pictures and he managed the
basketball team. He was the creator of the outfit that Frankenstein
wore. He made Boris Karloff up as Frankenstein.
Hodak:
And he was a big promoter of basketball?
Mollner:
Yes, he loved the game of basketball. He wanted to persuade the
studio into promoting i t . So we brought Charlie Hyatt out from
Kansas. They brought him out and he coached our club for one
year, in 1935. And, ironically, he left that year to go back to
Kansas City to coach the Jones Stores team, and, without Charlie
Hyatt, we won the right to go to the Olympics in 1936.
Hodak:
Before we get onto that, I'm curious about some of the changes in
the rules governing basketball. How did they change from what you
started with in high school?
Mollner:
Yes, starting with high school, they had to jump ball after every
basket. You would go to the center and jump ball again. There
was quite a bit of talk in the early '30s about doing away with that,
which they finally d i d . They changed the rules to let you take it
out—the way basketball is now played.
Hodak:
And the 10-second rule across the center line was added.
Mollner:
That's right. They didn't do that at first. At first, you could take
as much time as you wanted to cross the line. I don't know whether
you remember, but there was a lot of controversy over some of the
UCLA-USC games later on (laughter) where they did nothing but
3
stall during the game. They only scored four or six points and
then they stalled the rest of the time. They were using a zone
defense and they wouldn't come out. So they held the ball.
Hodak:
I think that was UCLA's ploy, they didn't have as strong a team.
Mollner:
That's right, USC had the stronger basketball teams and UCLA
thought that was a good way—and that wasn't a bad way—to hold
the score down and try and win at the end of the ballgame. I
remember that some of the scores were like 12-10 or 16-10. Those
are a few of the changes they made, the big changes in basketball.
The rest of it is more or less the way it has always been. Though
today, most of the college teams play zone defense, but the good
AAU clubs during the days we played with Fox and Universal
Pictures would never play a zone. Because a good passing team can
pass through a zone and get easy baskets.
They all went for
man-to-man defense.
Hodak:
What was your forte on the Universal team?
strength?
Mollner:
Defense! If the other team had a big scorer, why, I would do my
best to deny the ball to him. And if I was able to do that, well, by
the time he did get the ball he'd be so flustered he wasn't going to
come even close to scoring. Years later, as a coach, I always
stressed defense.
I figured everyone that was serious about
basketball was already offensive-minded—they had those skills from
the playgrounds. But defense is very important. It's a matter of
thinking and anticipating—knowing where the ball is and how they
are moving their players around. And of course, blocking out is
something we tended to do a lot of; today they talk about it, but I
don't see so much of it. Now, the game has changed a lot and there
are different philosophies used.
Some teams just figure on
outscoring their opponents. But we played good tough defense in
4
What was your
the AAU.
Hodak:
Talk about how the team fit together.
Mollner:
Well, our team at Universal Pictures, the one we won the Olympics
with,
had
Frank
Lubin
at
center.
Frank
was
only
6-foot-6-and-a-half; and I say only 6-foot-6 and a half because
during that time we played against some centers who were seven
feet. Bob Kurland was seven feet tall. Joe Fortenberry was 6-11,
and there was a Willard Schmidt who played with the McPherson
Oilers who was 7-1. But Frank had the ability . . . his body was
so big that once he got position in on the key, all you had to do
was get him the ball and he made two points for you—I don't care
who was behind him.
Hodak:
And you didn't have the three-second rule?
Mollner:
We didn't have a three-second rule at that time, no. You could use
the center spot—and we did. But that's right, later on they came
in with the three-second rule and then you had to play on the side
of the key.
Hodak:
What about some of the other members of the Universal Pictures
team?
Mollner:
Well, we had mostly UCLA players. Frank Lubin played at UCLA.
Sam Baiter played at UCLA. And Carl Knowles and Carl Shy also
played at UCLA. They were all from UCLA and they had played
approximately three or four years ahead of me. I played at L.A.
Junior College and then went out for the Universal team after they
were out of college.
Hodak:
Were there any coaches at L.A. Junior College that helped you?
Mollner:
Yes, I had two coaches at L.A. Junior College. One was a football
coach, Glenn Ackerman. And there was also Dave Farrell, who came
from Fremont High School and coached at LAJC my second year.
5
He was a tremendous coach and a tremendous man. I really enjoyed
him. We won the junior college championship two years while I was
there.
Hodak:
How wide was the network of competition?
Mollner:
Well, we played Chaffey College both times for the championship. It
was the Southern California championship, and there were seven
junior colleges in the league. We had a good time there and a good
time afterwards.
Hodak:
Who were some of the teams Universal Pictures played against in the
AAU? Who were some of your opponents?
Mollner:
Well, the teams were all independent teams. There were teams from
athletic clubs, like the Los Angeles Athletic Club or the Hollywood
Athletic Club. They had teams—not good teams—though prior to us
playing, the Los Angeles Club had some good ball players.
Hodak:
Then they seem to have lost—
Mollner:
Yes, they dropped out. Then companies started taking over. For
example, Carroll's Paint Company. There were teams from all over.
I'm trying to think of the cafeteria team . . . Clifton's Cafeteria.
They had a good team. There was a shoe company. Athletic Shoe,
that got a team together. During those years, they had the national
tournament in Denver, and it was the goal of every team to get
there. In order to go back there, you would have to win the AAU
tournament in this section of the country. Later, playing for Fox,
we made it back there quite often.
Hodak:
So in 1936, prior to your winning the Olympic tryouts in New York,
you had played the very same team, the McPherson Oilers, in the
AAU tournament in Denver?
Mollner:
That's right, they had a tremendous ballclub.
6
They were led by Joe
Fortenberry and they had Tex Gibbons, [Jack] Ragland, and
[William] Wheatley. Wheatley is living up in San Francisco and he
comes here to some of the Olympic functions. Anyway, we had lost
to them in Denver.
Hodak:
Did they underestimate you in the Olympic finals?
Mollner:
No, they didn't underestimate us, it was just a tough-fought
ballgame. We won by one point. It was closely fought, believe
me—a tough ballgame. But we played a good ballgame. In those
days, the scores weren't like they are today, with the big scoring.
I think the score of that game was 46-45.
Hodak:
Before you were able to leave for Berlin, you were given an
appointed coach. Maybe you want to talk about that. There also
was a tour arranged to finance your trip back to New York.
Mollner:
Well, that was the sad part as far as the ballplayers on our club
were concerned, even today. That year, 1936, was the first year
they put basketball into the Olympics. It was a new sport. We all
paid our own way to the national tournament in Denver and we paid
our own way to New York to go to the Olympic tournament. We paid
our own hotel bills, we did everything. Now when we won, you
would think that the Olympic Committee would pay our way from Los
Angeles to New York to get on the boat, but they sent us a
telegram that said: "You are our Olympic team and if you can get
to New York, we will take you on the boat to the Olympics"—if you
could get to New York.
Now today, they wine and dine the
Olympians like they're little tin gods, you know. Isn't it odd that
in those days, they would take you after winning—if you could get
there. Well, that's the way it goes. I mean, times are funny. Like
I was telling you before, during the first 20 years after winning the
Olympics, nothing big was ever made about us winning the first
Olympics in basketball. But over the last 20 years the nostalgia has
taken over, and we've been invited to more things. My wife laughs
at it every time we get an invitation to go somewhere for the
7
Olympics. She says, "Isn't this odd that you're still reaping the
benefits for the victory you had back in 1936—53 years ago."
Hodak:
Maybe that comes from being part of the Southern California
Olympians. It is a very active organization of Olympians. It's also
attention you deserve.
Mollner:
They're always asked to participate in whatever fund-raisers or
things they're doing. And of course we get invited to everything
and its great. We really enjoy i t , but it's so funny. . .
Hodak:
Yes, especially given how you were supported in '36.
Mollner:
They gave us . . . I don't remember what it was, a few dollars for
laundry, and that's all they gave us.
Hodak:
So you were able to get back to New York by playing in a number
of games organized by Braven Dyer.
Mollner:
That's right, Braven Dyer, Sr. came to our rescue. We played two
of the games at the Olympic Auditorium. We played against USC and
UCLA and then we played some other games that he sponsored, or
the paper sponsored, and the money we made helped get us back to
New York. Some of the people at Universal Pictures gave us
money—Boris Karloff, John Boles, and there were some other guys
too.
Hodak:
Universal Pictures sort of backed off from supporting the team?
Mollner:
Yes, because of the Jewish question. Yes, they did. Carl Laemmle
was the president and owner of Universal Pictures with his son Carl
Laemmle, Jr. And they were Jewish.
Hodak:
They apparently had reservations.
8
Mollner:
Oh yes, absolutely. They wanted nothing to do with it. In fact,
Sam Baiter was asked by many people not to compete. He got a lot
of telegrams from people who did not want him to compete. He was
in an awful dilemma.
We had another fellow on the team, Lloyd
Goldstein. Did Frank tell you about him?
Hodak:
Yes, a little bit.
professionalism.
Mollner:
He could have gone but the studio convinced him not to go. Well, he
reaped the benefits of that. He became the head electrician and he's
a millionaire today, living in Palms Springs.
Hodak:
Now, the Universal Pictures team largely coached itself, would you
say?
Mollner:
We did before . . . well, Charlie Hyatt had coached us the year
before. And we used the same plays and everything we had the
next year, up until the time to go to the Olympics. Braven Dyer
called our manager. Jack Pierce, and asked him if it would be
alright if this friend of his would come out and coach us. He said,
"This fellow is Jimmy Needles. He's from the University of San
Francisco." So Jimmy Needles did come out. Well, Jimmy Needles
did not know us at all. This was a very bad situation. Now Jack
Pierce didn't know how bad it really was. We had the ballclub
already. We were playing and winning. You know, don't fix it if
it's not broke. Anyway, he didn't get along too well with the
ballplayers. When we went to New York and won, well, we came
back and played these games without Jimmy Needles to get money to
go, and he thought we were trying to cut him out and he was a
little mad.
Hodak:
A little friction ensued?
Mollner:
Oh, there was a lot of friction, yes. A lot of friction spilled over.
But those things happen. It's a part of athletics, you know.
Frank
said
9
that
he
was
disqualified
for
Hodak:
Now, basketball was new in the Olympics.
Mollner:
That's right, it was very new. Although it was the first year they
had it in the the Olympics, they had a good turnout for teams. We
had a lot of teams in the Olympic competition that year. You see, at
one time during that Olympics, they had a meeting of the officials
and they were going to put in two types of basketball in the
Olympics: 6-foot-3 and under, and over 6-foot-3.
Hodak:
Yes, I had read that.
Mollner:
There was a lot of discussion about that. They came around to all
the teams, and we certainly didn't think that was a good idea.
Hodak:
I read that the American officials really put the kibosh on that idea.
Mollner:
Yes, they didn't like it either. Some teams at that time, like Japan
and China, didn't have any big men and they thought it would be
better if they had the two classes. But we thought that that
wouldn't gel.
Hodak:
It would take away from the games, certainly.
Mollner:
So they went right on with basketball every four years, but not
under those conditions.
Hodak:
I want you to talk further about the Olympic Games and the whole
background to that. First tell me a bit about the travel on the
ship.
Mollner:
Oh, it was great! It was beautiful. We had the entire team, over
300 people, all going in second class. In those days, that's the way
everybody traveled. You didn't travel first class unless you were a
millionaire. Everything in first class was a lot more expensive. So
the Olympic Committee had bought out the entire second-class section
and it was beautiful. We had beautiful staterooms and the food was
10
just the best, as it is on all cruises.
top deck, when it wasn't windy.
a couple of them over the side,
fun.
We'd work out a little on the
We'd pass the basketball—we threw
[laughter]
But we had a lot of
The other Olympians, like the track-and-field men, would be
up on deck working with weights or whatever it was.
lot of fun.
We had the run of the ship.
deck, which we used to do.
And it was a
We could go up on the A
We'd go up on A deck and they had
dishes full of candy and expensive nuts, and we'd fill our pockets
and go watch the show.
But they thought it was great, they loved
it.
And of course there was the incident with Eleanor Holm.
remember that day.
And I can
We had went up there to see a picture in the
afternoon, and she was shooting craps with the orchestra that had
been playing the lunch music, the mid-day music, and they were
taking a break.
And I'm sure that some of the people on the A
deck complained to
the
Olympic Committee
about
her,
and
they
decided to disqualify her.
Hodak:
And Carl Knowles had—
Mollner:
Well, rooming with me aboard ship was Carl Knowles, a forward on
our team.
Carl
Knowles had played for UCLA and graduated at
UCLA, and while there he had roomed with Eleanor Holm's brother.
So he said to me, " A r t , let's each take a petition and circulate it
amongst the athletes and see how many signatures we can get to get
Eleanor Holm put back on the team."
So we did; we got over 280
signatures on those two petitions to get her put back on, but the
committee had already made up their minds.
They were going to
show the people that they were in charge of the Olympics, so you
couldn't change their minds.
really did nothing wrong.
nickels, not a big deal.
But that was a shame because she
They were shooting craps for pennies or
Today, it wouldn't even be thought of.
In 1980 the Resorts International Hotel in Atlantic City invited all
the gold medal winners from all of the Olympics in the United States
11
to be their guests for three days in Atlantic City.
And the
culmination of it was, on the last night Life magazine was going to
take a picture on top of the hotel of all the gold medal Olympians
dressed in tuxedos and evening dresses for women, and they were
going to put the picture in the middle of their Olympic edition of
Life magazine. And then they boycotted the Olympics that year.
The Olympic Committee voted to boycott i t , so the pictures never
showed up. But we had a wonderful time in Atlantic City, and while
we were there I went up and talked to Eleanor and I said, "You
don't know me, but I was on that team and we circulated a petition."
I told her about Carl Knowles and she said, "Yes, Carl Knowles
roomed with my brother. I knew he helped and somebody helped
him, and I want to thank you for doing that. But it would have
never helped me because they had already made up their minds."
And I knew that when we went in to give them the petition, you
could tell they had already made up their minds. And she said,
"But they actually did me a favor with the publicity I gained there.
I came back and I got into Billy Rose's Aquacade and I later married
him." And she looked great when we saw her there. My wife
remarked how great she looked; she did too, she looked terrific.
Hodak:
Now, what things impressed you most about Berlin before the Games
started?
Mollner:
Well, before the Games started, on certain days, the people of Berlin
in their own neighborhoods would march with broomsticks on their
shoulders.
Hodak:
In unison?
Mollner:
In unison, yes. They'd march up and down just like a troop. When
we rode into the Olympic Village on the bus, we noticed hooks on
the ceiling of our Olympic Village rooms.
Those hooks were
camouflage hooks, so we knew they were going to use this Olympic
Village as a barracks for soldiers. But they were also looking
12
forward to when they would go to war.
Hodak:
It sounds like you saw a harbinger of things to come.
Mollner:
Yes, you could tell they had figured out all the possibilities, you
know, that Berlin would get bombed, and they would have
camouflage on the ceilings of those buildings so that the soldiers
wouldn't be in danger.
Hodak:
The Olympic Village in Berlin is considered to one of the more
extravagant-—
Mollner:
Yes, it was beautiful, it was gorgeous. Where you were housed
were like barracks, but many of them had their own eating place.
Like the Americans would have one place where American food was
served, and in the same eating place they would have Japanese food
and so on and so forth. So it was really done very well. They did
it very well.
Hodak:
Was it easy to travel into Berlin?
Mollner:
Yes. They had buses going in to Berlin all the time, that would
take you in. You could always get a bus. I think they ran every
half-hour or whenever it was. And they were coordinated to the
schedule of events. We'd go in and watch everything in the
stadium. We watched all of the track and field except when we were
working out or had a ballgame. We did not play in the stadium. We
played on a court outside. It was a clay court. And of course, the
last game was in the rain and you couldn't put the ball on the
floor—it would stick—so you had to pass it.
Hodak:
1 9 - 8 was the final score of the last ballgame?
Mollner:
Yes, it was bad, it was really bad. You knew that the people who
set all this up didn't know much about basketball. They were all
interested in i t , but they didn't know that you would play it
13
indoors. They had seen pictures of outdoor courts here so they
just made an outdoor court. (laughter)
Hodak:
That made for some pretty rough dribbling.
Mollner:
Yes, it did. They put a clay down like you see on tennis courts,
and when they get wet, that's bad.
Hodak:
Did any of the teams you competed against impress you?
Mollner: Well, we played Canada in the finals, and they had a good club
because they had a lot of Americans on it.
Hodak:
What about some of the other teams you might have played, like
Mexico, the Philipines, any of those?
Mollner:
Mexico always has a good team. They love to play the sport and
they have good coaches down there, so they were good. Both Japan
and China were into it pretty good; they just did not have any big
men. And Germany played like a team that was new. Frank Lubin,
our center, who is Lithuanian, was invited to Lithuania and coached
their national team to a championship over there. There were a lot
of teams in Europe that played basketball. Frank was impressed
with some of them.
Hodak:
Yes, Frank talked of that and a later, extended t r i p . Now, what
are some of the more notable track events you might have witnessed?
Mollner:
Well, we watched John Woodruff win the 800-meter race.
the field that day.
Hodak:
It was easy for the American team to get in to the stadium?
Mollner:
Yes, it was. You had to have your ID. Our outfits were blue
serge suits with United States emblems on the pocket of the coat.
And we had had straw hats with red, white and blue bands around
14
We were on
them. And the best thing was a little sleeveless sweater that fit
underneath the coat; it had red, white, and blue around the collar,
and red, white and blue around the bottom of this sweater.
Everybody knew us as the Olympic team, so when we came to the
thing, they'd let you i n . We were on the inside of the field when
John Woodruff won. We yelled at him, "Come on John, go get 'em!"
He did and he went and got 'em. And then another interesting
thing was that we watched Cornelius Johnson win the high jump,
through television. The first time I ever saw television was in our
Olympic Village in the office there; they had a television set and
they told us to come in and watch it. And when a car would go by
outside, the picture would wave, just like that. That's the way the
first TV set that my wife and I had was. When a car would go by
outside, it would wave the same way.
Hodak:
You told me of an interesting incident, when you were able to see a
whole entourage of German officials arrive at the stadium. Can you
talk about that?
Mollner:
Well, the first day we went there was for the opening of the
Olympics. We were on the field and all of the countries marched
their Olympic competitors i n . I think most everyone has seen that
done, like here in Los Angeles. And then they let pigeons go and
everything, all pageantry—and it was great. We went to the
stadium the second or third day.
And there was a small street, I'd
say it was 100 yards long. Alongside of that street was the
entrance to the stadium, the private entrance for Hitler to his box
up there. So we went there and waited. The SS troops came;
these were the elite SS troops. I don't know how many there were,
but they lined this street. They were all over 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3,
and they were about the same height. They were all standing at
ease until he drove up in a black Dusenberg, I guess you'd call it.
Anyway, he got out of there and of course they all hopped to
attention and gave him the Hitler salute, and he gave it back. And
then he walked in with one of his generals. I guess it was Goering.
I didn't know at that time who Goering was. Anyway, they went in.
15
So we hurried and got into the stadium, and when he went up to the
front of his box the entire stadium stood up and gave him that
Hitler salute, "Heil Hitler." And it was very, very impressive, and
very memorable.
After that I saw many pictures of him in
newsreels, but it was not as impressive as being there at the time
and seeing him go into the stadium, and seeing the people respond
to him like that.
Hodak:
Yeah, I can imagine. So what were some of the other competitions
that you were able to see?
Mollner:
Well, we saw a lot of the competitions because we only worked out
like two hours a day; we'd work out maybe in the afternoon for an
hour, and early in the morning for an hour. And then when we
played our games, of course, we couldn't go. But we saw all of
Jesse Owens' wins. In the 200 meters, it looked like they shot him
out of a cannon. When they came to the straightaway, he was way
in front. Jesse Owens was so great, so terrific.
Hodak:
Did you get to meet and come to know some of the American
athletes?
Mollner:
Oh yes, we knew a lot of them. On the boat over there, there were
eight days over, we had a lot of card playing. They played a lot of
blackjack and poker and everything in the lounge. All the athletes
would intermingle. And Lawson Robertson was the coach, and we
didn't care too much for him. He was treating the athletes like they
were schoolchildren. And some of them were in school, they were in
college; but when you're in college I think you're an adult. Sure,
college kids do some funny things, but he acted like these kids
couldn't wipe their own noses. He didn't go over too big with them.
They really didn't care for that too well.
Hodak:
I think that there was more friction between coaches and athletes
then, also administrators and athletes.
Did that affect your
16
competition in basketball?
Mollner:
No, because the American team was so much more superior to all of
the other teams, you couldn't lose if you wanted to. They were just
starting basketball. And here we were, the best team in the United
States. So against these foreign countries . . . it was no contest.
The only team that could have really given us a game was Canada.
That's just the way it was. It was a shame that it was played
there. And it was also a shame that we could not have traveled,
because, as you alluded to a little while ago, there was a little
friction with Jimmy Needles and the ballclub. We found out later,
through telegrams that were on his desk that we read, that he had
received many telegrams inviting the team to come at their expense
and play in different countries. They were dying to see what the
American basketball team was like because they were getting
interested in basketball. But he wanted to get back home to make
some money, so he never told us about those things. He should
have told us and said, "Well, go on your own." But we did play
the Oilers in the Hippodrome in New York. They paid us. A guy
came out . . . he was going to compete with Ned Irish of Madison
Square Garden and use the Hippodrome to put on ballgames. So he
came aboard the ship when they brought out the tugboat to bring it
in to port, and he got us into our room and said, "How would you
guys all like to make some money?" So I think he paid us 100
dollars apiece. And of course, we played that game.
Hodak:
So that was one of the extra benefits of your Olympic competition.
Mollner:
That was the only side benefit. Because if the Olympic Committee
would have known that, they would have probably suspended us.
Hodak:
Well, you may still get a call. (laughter)
Mollner:
Can't help that. It's a little late now.
after the competition was over.
17
(laughter)
But that was
Hodak:
Were you disappointed by the fact that the games were played on an
outdoor court? How did the team view that?
Mollner:
We were a little let down, but we thought if it didn't rain, it would
be fine. You could play a game. We'd played many games outside.
We played a game in Mexico once. Do you know who Dolores Del Rio
was? Well, she was a movie star. Anyway, our Twentieth Century
Fox team went down to Mexico and we played five games in Mexico
City. On the way back—we were flying back to Chihuahua where
we were going to play three games—we hit turbulence. The plane
dropped 700 feet in one fell swoop. The pilot called back to us and
said, "I'm going to have to land." And we landed in a little town
where Dolores Del Rio was born. We landed in the afternoon and
that night we played a ballgame there.
So the outdoor courts
didn't mean anything—but not being able to dribble . . . I mean,
you could dribble, but the ball would stick on the mud. (laughter)
It makes for a bad ballgame, naturally . . . a bad ballgame to
watch. And playing the Olympic championship ballgame like that,
well, that's not good. (laughter)
Hodak:
Do you recall very much of the award ceremonies and how that was
handled?
Mollner:
No, we weren't on the awards stand. Jimmy Needles, because of the
friction between us, kept us off and just put the other half of the
team up. But, these are things that happen, so what are you going
to do?
Hodak:
Is there anything further that you want to say about the Olympics
before you talk about the remainder of your AAU career?
Mollner:
Well, I loved every minute of it there at the Olympics. It was
tremendous . . . plus the fact that that was the start of the Hitler
era. That had a profound impact on this country and all countries.
It was very impressive to see the way Germany was being mobilized
and brought into the European situation at the time.
Very
18
impressive. The people were hoodwinked—very much so. Berlin
had the second best subway system at the time; New York had the
first and they had the second. One day Carl Shy and I left and we
got on the subway, and on every subway car they had an outline of
where each car went. It showed you, you're on this line and this is
where it goes. So we drove to the end of i t , out to the country.
We got out and had our sweaters on so everybody would know who
we were. Two young guys with a motorcycle, they had a side car,
stopped.
They couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak
German. I took two years of German in college but I couldn't speak
it—I could just speak a few words. But we did communicate fairly
well, and they told us they wanted to take us to lunch at a place.
I said, "Fine." So they left me and one of the other fellows there,
and the other one took Carl Shy and drove him away. And they
went way, way out there. And pretty soon he came driving back
and they put me in and drove me to the nicest eating place, built
over a river. It was like a stream and you could look through the
rafters and see the water going through down there.
So we
communicated about Germany and we asked them what they thought
about going to war. We said, "Does Hitler want to go to war?" And
they said, "No, no, he wants to get back the land lost in the First
World War.
He wants to build Germany up.
Look at what's
happening in Germany, it's all being built up!" Well, they were as
naive about it all as a lot of people were in this country and other
countries, because he did go to war. He didn't want that; he
wanted the world.
But the German people were great to us. We went one night to a
beer garden. I just couldn't believe that they could have so much
fun. They had two musicians on stage with instruments—I didn't
know what they were—would play and everybody would sing and
they would all have a stein of beer. They only served two kinds of
beer; a dark beer and a lighter beer. But they just had a great
time.
19
Hodak:
Do you recall much of the Closing Ceremonies?
Mollner:
Well, it really wasn't anything. I had seen others before that. I
had seen the '32 closing. It was a lot like that. There's one thing
I forgot to tell you. Every country, as it comes into the Olympics,
has a flag bearer. Now, the flag bearer for our team was a water
polo player.
Hodak:
Yes, [James] Wally O'Connor.
Mollner:
Well, most of the flag bearers would dip their colors when they
passed the reviewing stand where the home country's flag was.
They would dip the flag in respect. And Wally O'Connor, he
grabbed ahold of that flag, and when we got there he hoisted it
higher and walked by. (laughter)
One other incident that was interesting to me was the one about
Jesse Owens being snubbed by Hitler. On that day, after he had
won a race, he was invited up to the box where Hitler was, but
there were other athletes up there, other winners, and he was
standing in line. And my impression of that was that after he
waited awhile—he was in the broad jump and he had to get down
there as they were broad jumping that day—he turned around and
he started to come out of there because he wanted to go practice a
few jumps. And some of the American writers, correspondents,
yelled over, "Jesse, wouldn't he see you?" And Jesse, not hearing
exactly what they said, nodded yes. They took it up that Hitler
would not see him, but I don't believe that was the case at all. I
believe that has been really been blown out of proportion. And I
believe that as it went on and on and was reported, it became
"fact."
Hodak:
I think that if anyone was snubbed it was Cornelius Johnson.
20
Mollner:
That's probably right, yes. I really believe that the thing came
about by accident and they just perpetuated it by telling it over and
over and over again. And, as you say, I think Cornelius Johnson
was probably snubbed. Of course, it's hard to get the truth
because it alt happened so fast and under varying circumstances, so
it's hard to say just what was in everybody's mind at the time. But
I don't think Jesse was snubbed. I really believe that the German
people were amazed at Jesse Owens. If you could have seen—and
you probably have. You've probably seen the tape of the 200-meter
race that he won. He looks like he's rocking in a rocking chair,
he's running so effortlessly. I believe that the German people
could not believe he could win by that far, running that easy. He
was just effortless in his race that day. And everything that he
did, he did with such ease and grace. He amazed the German public
and I'm sure Hitler would not have snubbed him, believe me.
The German people were fantastic, they were interested. Wherever
we went, the people would flock around. They not only showed
interest but they showed a feeling towards you that was fantastic.
Even today, I have many letters from young Germans, and I know
they send them to many other Olympians in the Southern California
area. They send maybe ten cards and they want me to sign all of
them. And I know Frank Lubin and Sam Baiter get many of those
letters. I always try to fulfill them by sending them what they
want. It's terrific that young people are that interested in sports
and the beginning of sport.
Well, we left Germany and, as I said earlier, we were invited to play
a game in the Hippodrome against the McPherson Oilers. And then
on that same boat, as we were coming i n , the Mayor of New York,
Fiorello La Guardia, sent his secretary out to invite all the
Olympians aboard the boat to spend one week at New York's
expense. They put us up in a hotel. And of course, we were all
homesick, terrifically homesick. We went to see the Yankees play
baseball, and they took us to a nightclub, to Coney Island, well,
they took us to a lot of places. And we ate all our meals at the
21
hotel. It was terrific, the food was terrific, the hotel was great.
But we didn't spend the whole week because we wanted to go home.
And when we arrived in Los Angeles, we had a lot of people there
to meet us. Anyway, there were other people who were interested
in my returning. I worked for the post office at the time, and
before I left to go to the Olympics everyone in the post office had
collected a lot of money, because they were stamp collectors and
wanted me to bring back the special first-edition stamps. So I took
$500 or $600 over there to buy stamps in Germany. I took about
two hours getting all these stamps. (laughter) It was really funny.
But I brought them all back, and they were very happy to get them
because Germany had a lot of different Olympic stamps. Anyway, I
came back to Los Angeles to my wife and family. And Carl Laemmle
at Universal Pictures was kind of disenchanted with the basketball
because of Hitler and the situation at the time. Universal Pictures
stopped funding or supporting the basketball team and we, the whole
team, went over to Fox Studio.
Hodak:
Did you continue to play basketball?
Mollner:
Oh yes, oh yes. We played with Fox for nine years and we went to
the national tournament several times. We won the title one year,
we were second one year, and third one year in that national
tournament.
Hodak:
You mentioned before that you met Dr. James Naismith in New York.
Tell me about that.
Mollner:
Yes, in 1937 we went to New York to play in Madison Square Garden
for Ned Irish. It was called the Naismith Tournament. They invited
AAU teams from all over the country, and we won that tournament.
Naismith was introduced there and I got to talk to him.
Hodak:
And what did you talk of?
22
Mollner:
What he said was, "I can't believe how improved the ballplayers are
today than when we started." I said, "Dr. Naismith, what it is is
that you were starting a new sport that nobody had ever played."
"Yes, but they were all athletes playing i t . " He said, "The moves
today are phenomenal." I would like to know what he would think of
Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. He'd be astonished at what they
can do with the basketball.
Hodak:
And around this time you had been approached by some college
coaches?
Mollner:
Oh, yes.
Well, while I was going to junior college I tried
desperately to get into USC, but I had no success. I also tried to
get into Stanford with no success. One of the coaches at L.A.
Junior College when I was going there was a fellow by the name of
"Red" Hand who played football for Stanford. And a fellow by the
name of [John] Bunn was coaching at Stanford at the time, and Red
wrote to Bunn about me. So when they came down to play USC, I
ate dinner with them at their training table, but I never got . . . .
I gave them my grades but I never received any notice. Well, after
I started playing with Fox and Universal Pictures, why, Sam Barry
came up to me one time at a ballgame and asked me if was
interested in going to USC. He said, "We'll give you a scholarship,
we'll give you a job." And I told him, "Sam, I'm married now.
Where were you when I tried to get into USC?" He said, "Well, I
was coach there but I never knew you tried to get i n . " I don't
know if that was all true or not. But anyway, I also received a
letter from Coach Bunn up at Stanford and he wanted me to come
there. But, as I said, I was married by this time and had to
support a family, so I didn't go on to either school.
Hodak:
One of the highlights of your years with Fox was in 1941, when you
won the AAU tournament.
Mollner:
Yes. We played in Kansas City, in December, in an afternoon
ballgame against the Kansas City club. It was a real tight ballgame
23
but we won by three points. After the game, we went in and
showered. And the two referees were in our dressing room and
they showered, got dressed and left, and then they came running
back in and said, "Do you know what?" Well, of course the date
was December 7, the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That, I
will never forget. We were staying at the Kansas Citian Hotel where
the Kansas City Athletic Club also was. And staying there with
us—we saw him on the elevator and we talked to him—was Glenn
Cunningham, a well-known miler. He had run a race and won the
mile in the same place we played basketball.
Hodak:
This was at the Municipal Auditorium?
Mollner:
At the Municipal Auditorium, that's right,
guy—and quite a miler too.
Hodak:
This wasn't the opening of the Municipal Auditorium, was it?
Mollner:
Not on December 7, no. We opened that auditorium, I can't
remember the date, but we did open it. I remember the floor was
made of blocks of wood, and during the game, the first half, some
of the sap came up out of the blocks of wood and we had to have
the floor washed down to take the sap up. It was a beautiful place
though, very nice.
Hodak:
In that same year, you won the AAU tournament?
Mollner:
That was the year we won the AAU tournament in Colorado, yes.
We played the final game against [Angelo] Hank Luisetti and the
Olympic Club of San Francisco.
Hank Luisetti was a great
ballplayer, a terrifically good ballplayer. I played at Fox for nine
years and played with Frank, Carl Knowles and Carl Shy; Sam
Baiter did not come to Fox with us. We had many University of
Southern California ballplayers that played on that team through the
nine years. Some of them were Bobby Matthews, Jack Hupp, Jim
Semenoff, Abe Androff . . . and one guy that went on to play and
24
And he was quite a
coach in the NBA was Alex Hannum, he played with us. And one
year Bill Sharman worked out with us. He never played with us;
that same year he went back to pro and he finally wound up and
played with the Celtics. But we had a lot of ballplayers from USC
and UCLA with us at Fox during the nine years that I was there.
Then of course pro came in back East. And it eventually got out
here, though not at first.
Hodak:
Were there any early efforts to organize a pro team out here?
Mollner:
Yes, in '44 or '45 they had a team out here called the Red Devils,
and I held a contract with that team for one year for $2,800. And
on that team was Art Stoefen, the brother of the tennis player, Les
Stoefen. Art played at Stanford. And we also had Jackie Robinson
on that team; he and I played as guards on that team. And I asked
Jackie at the time . . . he was playing with the Dodgers and I
couldn't believe that they would let him play basketball, because he
could get a broken leg or a sprained ankle. And he said that
nothing in his contract barred him from playing so he was going to
play. (laughter) Our first game was to be with the Chicago Gears
with George Mikan. About a week before that game came on—we had
many write-ups in the Times and the Herald-Joe Reed, who was
assistant chief of police, called me into his office and said, " A r t , I
see in the paper that you're playing with this professional team." I
said yes. He said, "Well, we can't let you do that. You can't play
pro athletics outside of the department." I said, "Well, chief, I'm in
kind of a quandary because I have a $2,800 contract with them, and
if I don't show up for those games the contract reads that I have to
pay them the same amount of money." He said, "Art, we have good
lawyers, they'll never . . . ." So anyway, they never said a word
about it.
Hodak:
So then the Red Devils never really took off?
Mollner:
Not as a pro team. I saw the game with George Mikan and the
Chicago Gears. They played them and they played six or seven
25
other games, but it never really took off. The fellow that started
that team was from Pasadena. He wanted to get a foothold on pro
basketball out here. Well, it never worked out that way, as often
happens, you know. Later, as it turned out, somebody put in with
the NBA to get a franchise here. They were accepted and the
Lakers came out here.
Hodak:
What about George Mikan?
How did he impress you as a player?
Mollner:
He was great. He was big; height is one thing, but a big body is
something else in the spot. If you watch pro today, the banging
that goes on in the key is fantastic. You know, our ballclub had
Frank Lubin. There were many centers taller than Frank but they
couldn't move him off that spot. And once Frank got the ball on
that spot, he knew what to do with i t . And that's the way it was
with Mikan. He was tremendously effective because he was such a
big man. They couldn't move him out of that spot.
Hodak:
Later you would have played against Bob Kurland.
compare to someone like Mikan?
Mollner:
Well, Kurland was much more active.
he was 7-1, he was quicker.
Hodak:
A little thinner frame?
Mollner:
Oh yes, he had a much thinner frame. But he could move and he
had longer arms. He could block a lot of shots. In fact, during
one national tournament, a New York team came here with a New
York University star, "Dolly" King—and he was terrific. But he
shot from his forehead, as they did in those days. They'd bring
the ball up and shoot it on the line, and Kurland stayed under the
bucket. They played Phillips and Kurland blocked every shot.
King never made a point.
Hodak:
Is this before goal-tending was called?
26
How did Kurland
He was quicker.
Even though
Mollner:
Yeah, but the next year they put the goal-tending rule i n , because
Kurland knocked everything down. (laughter)
Hodak:
And the Phillips Oilers were certainly, not to slight any of the
teams you played on, but the Oilers were in a class—
Mollner:
They were terrific. They were our arch-rivals. Every year, they'd
have ten All-Americans on their team. Of course, we beat them a
few times; and the times we beat them, I really remember. They
always had a good ballclub. But we were the arch-rivals against
them. They liked to beat us and of course we liked to beat them.
Hodak:
Would a team like the Phillips Oilers have, in effect, a home court?
Mollner:
Oh yes, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, that was their home court. We
played there many times. And they had a funny thing. When
Frank Phillips, the man who started Phillips Oil Company, would
come into the building, they would stop the game and he would walk
right across the floor to his little seats up there. I always thought
that was kind of funny. But Frank Phillips ruled that company with
an iron hand.
Hodak:
And he might have ruled the city,
Mollner:
He did.
Hodak:
Now did you, while you were working for the LAPD, did you ever
coach or compete on a team made up of members of the LAPD?
Mollner:
Yep! Oh yes, I coached the LAPD team for three years. We went
back to the national tournament and we played Phillips a tremendous
game. They beat us at the end by three points but we really gave
them a tough game. We only had six ballplayers, too. We got into
kind of a chess game with them. I played my offense two-on-two. I
had a fellow by the name of Danny Johnston that went to Oregon
State. He was out here from Pasadena Junior College. He was a
(laughter)
Bartlesville was Phillips Oil.
27
That's what that was.
tremendous athlete. Then I had one of the best basketball players I
ever had the good fortune of playing with, a fellow by the name of
Les O'Gara. Les O'Gara was about 6-foot-5 and Danny Johnston was
about 6-foot-1, and I devised a little offense because we couldn't
play Phillips head up. When we came down the court, my other
three ballplayers would go over on the sidelines and we'd play two
against two. At the end of the half we were leading by one point,
and Les O'Gara at one stage of the game had more points than the
entire Phillips team. We were playing a six o'clock game at Denver
at the auditorium there and at the six o'clock game, that was
dinnertime, there weren't many people in the audience. But after
that first half, with the score, LAPD 25-Phillips 24, why, the entire
stadium was filled up, there wasn't a seat available. And then Les
O'Gara fouled out. Well, I was coaching the team but I was dressed
because I was the seventh man, and I had to go in for him. We lost
that game by three points.
Hodak:
And Twentieth Century Fox no longer sponsored a team?
Mollner:
No, they did. They still had a team but I chose to coach the LAPD
team because I was working for them.
Hodak:
And when did your basketball career, coaching or playing, come to
an end?
Mollner:
Well, I called it quits in 1952. I coached a team sponsored by Mr.
and Mrs. Jim Jordan, who had the radio show, "Fibber McGee and
Molly." It was a very popular radio show in the early '50s. Well,
they sponsored that team and I coached it. We went to the national
tournament and got third. Nineteen fifty-two was an Olympic year
so the first four teams got to go to Kansas City for the Olympic
tryouts. We went with the Phillips Oilers, the Peoria Caterpillars,
and the Air Force. Peoria and the Air Force went to another site—I
can't remember where it was right now—then the two winners went
to New York and played; and the winner of that played the best
college team. We played in Kansas City against the Phillips Oilers.
28
The game ended in a tie. We played one overtime and we got the
ball, held it for five minutes, took one shot and missed it—so we
went to another overtime. We got the ball. Now, Kurland was
playing with the Oilers and Danny Roberts was my center. He was
only 6-9 but he could outjump him, because Kurland was at the end
of his career. So he'd outjump him and get the tip. We'd hold the
ball for five minutes. We went through two overtimes like that and
the score was still tied. And in the third overtime we got ahead by
one point. And I had two Loyola University stars on my team,
Johnny Arndt and Billy Donovan. They were both small, but could
they dribble. So Johnny Arndt had the foul shot, he said, "Let me
make the first one, that will put us one point ahead, and let's take
the other out." You could do that in those days.
We had three
minutes left and Billy and he dribbled for . . . they were trying to
get us, they'd foul us, we'd take the ball out, and we continued to
do this. Well, near the end, with about 30 seconds to go, Johnny
Arndt was dribbling the ball and he got loose from his man and
dribbled in to make a bucket, but a man was right behind him, and
really fouled him—and they didn't call it. The ball went up, they
got it and came down, there were about 11 seconds to go, and they
took a shot from the center that went in, and we lost the game by
one point.
Hodak:
So then, the Phillips team went on to play against the top collegiate
team?
Mollner:
No, they went on to New York to play the Peoria Caterpillars, and
Peoria beat Phillips and they went to the Olympics in 1952.
Anyway, in the game we lost in Kansas City—I weighed just about
what I weigh now, 160 pounds—I tost eight pounds in that game,
just on the bench. I never played that ballgame; I was on the
bench.
But I was playing everybody's position out there.
(laughter) I couldn't sleep for a good month after that game. We
should have won that game. We outplayed them. Phillips hit around
60 percent of their shots in the first half, and they were ten points
ahead of us. We came back in the second half and tied the
29
score with about three minutes to go and played them on even terms
all the way through. The game ended even and then we went into
the overtimes. But we should have won that game.
Hodak:
How much longer did the AAU schedule or organize basketball of this
caliber? I guess its decline coincides with the emergence of the
NBA.
Mollner:
Gradually, with the emergence of pro basketball, the companies
stopped sponsoring teams. They couldn't get the publicity out of it
that they could otherwise. When we played with Fox, Universal, we
traveled around the country in leagues. Even with the LAPD we
were in a league. I took the LAPD team to Bartlesville, Oklahoma,
and played them one year. We got beat badly but we played them.
But we were in a league with Peoria; Akron, Ohio; Denver; Phillips
of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; San Francisco; Sacramento; and Santa
Maria, they had a big club. They had USC players on it and they
went in big. There were many millionaires in Santa Maria who had
retired there, and they backed the club 100 percent. They had all
the money they wanted to conduct basketball. And people really
came out in droves to see i t . But that league, with the emergence
of pro, fell apart.
Denver had a number of terrific ballplayers. They had [Robert]
"Ace" Gruenig, a great center, and also "Jumpin' Jack" McCracken.
What a ballplayer! And they had a number of good players in
Kansas City; players like Joe Reiff. And one of the greatest
ballplayers of my time was a player by the name of [Forrest] "Red"
DeBernardi. In the days of the Kansas City Tournament, they had
running guard, standing guard, right forward, left forward and
center. This Red DeBernardi was the only man to win All-American
honors at every position. He made it at every position. He was
about 6-3, but he could rebound, shoot, everything. He was great.
Red DeBernardi. I met him once. Charlie Hyatt had played against
him.
30
With the beginning of pro basketball the AAU was phased out. I
actually coached the police team a few more years and we played all
locally. When Chief [William] Parker became chief, about a week
after he became chief, I called his secretary and asked for an
appointment to see him. It was in the afternoon at two o'clock on a
Tuesday or Wednesday. I came in and he says, "What's on your
mind?" I said, "I don't know if you know it chief, but I coach the
police basketball team." He said, "Oh yes." I said, "I want to
know whether you are behind it or not." He says, "What does it
mean if I'm behind it or not?" Well, we now belonged to a league
and I told him that we traveled. He said, "Well, I can't okay that."
And I said, "I tell you chief, the fellows are traveling on their own
time.
They are keeping their days off or their vacations for
when we go to the tournament." He said, "I appreciate all that, but
when they write it up in the sports page, they don't write up that
they're taking their own time. And people that read that do not like
their policemen being away playing basketball or doing other things.
You're supposed to be here doing police work." I said, "I can
understand that. Okay, we'll quit the big time and we'll play
around Los Angeles." He said, "Fine, that's great. I back it as
far as that goes." I said, "Thank you, chief," and that was i t . So
we did have a ballclub but we played it strictly in Los Angeles.
Hodak:
How long did you stay with the LAPD?
Mollner:
I went with the LAPD in 1943, October 18, and I was with
Angeles Police Department for 31 years. I retired in 1974.
wore a uniform in my life and I think I'm the only policeman
say that. Now you are required to work at least a year
months, 18 months, in uniform.
Hodak:
You worked undercover?
Mollner:
I worked undercover. I came out of the academy. We went six
weeks to the academy. I came out and my best friend was working
in administrative vice and he got me there, which was plainclothes.
31
the Los
I never
that can
and six
I went from there to the detective bureau; I worked auto theft for
six or seven years. Then I went to burglary. Later I went to
Devonshire station out in the Valley and then to the West Valley
station, then I went back to the police building downtown and went
to robbery/homicide where I worked my last five years. Of my 31
years, I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a tremendous job. The
people were fantastic. The people you work with—you'd have to be
a policeman to know what it is to work for the police department.
Of course, today I wouldn't recommend anybody going on the police
department. The way it is today, they've tied your hands to do
police work. You can't do police work the way they want you to do
it now. The criminals get all the breaks. It just doesn't wash.
And on top of that, it's too dangerous. Anybody you stop could be
on cocaine and shoot you at the drop of a hat. Our city has really
taken a turn for the worse. The streets are not safe. I used to go
down on Central Avenue—that's south Los Angeles—and make an
arrest with my partner, with no gun, no nothing. We'd get maybe
20 gamblers for shooting craps, you know, put them in the car,
drive them all to the station, they'd pay their five dollar fine and
they're out. You couldn't do that today. Believe me, you wouldn't!
If you want to go make an arrest for shooting craps, better take a
shotgun with you.
Hodak:
Well, today you'd be happy if you only found people shooting craps.
Mollner:
Well, they're doing everything else, you're right. That's the least
of their worries, shooting craps. But that's the way it was. It was
just great. You did a lot of police work . . . made a lot of arrests.
And Parker made Los Angeles one of the best police departments in
the world. No doubt about it. But things change and everything's
changed.
Hodak:
And certainly basketball has changed.
Mollner:
Yes, basketball has.
With the coming of pro basketball, they went
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to bigger ballplayers; well, everybody is bigger now. I think all
children are bigger than their parents. And I believe it's the better
food, better exercise, vitamins, and whatnot. I think everything
tends to make people better and bigger. Now everybody has got a
seven-foot center. Before, they were a rare commodity, but not
today. Everybody has got seven-foot centers, and they have 6-10
forwards and 6-11 forwards. I have many people who ask me today,
"Gee, you played in the Olympics in '36. How would you do with
these giants today?" Well, if anybody watched the Lakers play Utah
in the playoffs and saw this John Stockton—he can't be over six
feet. He's about 5-11 or 5-10, something like that. But he's the
most effective ballplayer in the games they've played so far. He
scores, he intercepts the ball, and he just broke or tied Magic's
record for assists in one game.
Hodak:
Well, there's still room for the small player.
Mollner:
Oh, without a doubt, there's always been room for small players.
Hodak:
And the teamwork is still going to be important, no matter how—
Mollner:
That's it, that's it! Like years ago. I told you about Charlie
Hyatt. Now, Charlie Hyatt, he loved anybody who played defense.
He loved me because I played defense; I didn't score much on that
team. Charlie wanted to score all the points because you got written
up when you scored all the points. And Charlie was great, don't
get me wrong. Charlie was a tremendous ballplayer. He was the
best the world has ever known. But I really believe that the
developer and the inventor of the game. Dr. Naismith . . . I think
his idea of basketball is what it should be today. He wanted five
men to play as one, and I really believe that that is the concept
where basketball is at its best; not for one man, like Wilt
Chamberlain or Michael Jordan. Jordan scores 10; well, he doesn't
have the supporting cast that he should have. If they get more
people, he can dish the ball off. He is a tremendous ballplayer. He
can do more than any ballplayer in the game today. But they
33
just were eliminated because one man cannot win a ballgame.
The game of basketball has changed from when we played because of
the time element, the 24-second clock. They've got to get the ball
up and down. And of course they go fast. If they have a fast
break, they take it. Everything is go as fast as you can. Now,
when we played, there were many teams that fast broke, too. The
McPherson Oilers, the team we played against in the finals of the
Olympic playoffs, they went fast. Fortenberry would get the ball
off the hoop and throw it down court to Johnson speeding on down,
and they'd get two if they could. But most of the teams then, if
they couldn't get a fast break, would set up slow, but they had all
kinds of time. We didn't have the 24-second clocks, you know.
You could work a play; if it didn't work, you could throw it out.
What was more on a premium then were mistakes. The team that
made the most mistakes lost. This was a rule of thumb. So it was
at a premium not to make mistakes. Now, they weren't rushed.
Today the pro teams are rushed. They have turnovers right and
left. My God, when I played, if we had that many turnovers, they
would have thrown us off the court. Because we weren't that
pressured. We had plenty of time to do everything, so you made
good passes. If you made bad passes, your teammates told you
about them. (laughter) But today, naturally, the time element is
all important.
The emphasis now is to play to the audience, and that's what they
have done with basketball. They made it an offensive game. They
make 100 points or more at every game. That's what the public
wants to see. When I played, the Phillips Oilers, overall, had the
best amateur or AAU team that was ever devised. And they would
always try to score 66 points because it was Phillips 66. They'd
score 66 points and that would win for them. Today, 66 points,
they can do that in the half now. Of course, now they play 48
minutes and not 40. But all that was added to make the game more
offensive, so you could score more points. A good hook shot, a
long jump shot, a three-point basket, those are all intriguing to
34
sports fans, to basketball fans.
Hodak:
Well, I appreciate these thoughts coming from a basketball player of
an earlier era.
Mollner:
Well, there are a lot of changes today and basketball will take more
changes. I really believe, the way people are growing, that they
will eventually raise the basket.
I think that's a foregone
conclusion. I think they'll put it up to where nobody is going to
dunk the ball.
Hodak:
I don't know about that.
of the e n t e r t a i n m e n t .
Mollner:
Well, they might just put it up a little higher, but eventually it'll
get up there pretty good, I think.
Hodak:
Again, I appreciate your thoughts on the changes you've seen in
basketball. Now I'd like you to talk a little about your family.
Mollner:
I married my wife in 1935. In fact, this year we had our 53rd
anniversary. We had two children. We have a son, Dennis
Duke—everybody calls him Duke—who lives in Las Vegas with his
wife and his son, my grandson. We have a daughter who lives in
Beverly Hills and works over there.
Hodak:
Did your son develop into a basketball player?
Mollner:
He played basketball in high school and college, but he didn't go on
with it. He is built a lot like I am, t h i n , tall. He stands about
6-3. He follows the same line, he's taller than his dad. And my
daughter is pretty tall too. She's about 5-9. They've been terrific.
My wife has been very supportive of basketball, although she didn't
know very much about basketball when we were first married. She
kept going to the games and she got pretty knowledgeable. I'll tell
you a story about my wife. I took her one time to see the Lakers
I think they'll keep it so the dunk is part
35
play, and they were playing a team that Oscar Robertson was on.
Hodak:
Milwaukee, wasn't it?
Mollner:
It was probably Milwaukee. And Abe Androff was up in the stands
with me. Abe played at USC. So my wife Marge and I were sitting
there. We watched the first half, Elgin Baylor was playing for the
Lakers. Abe Androff came over and said, "Hey A r t , how do you
like that Baylor?" I said, "Let me ask my wife." I said, "Honey,
tell Abe who you like out there." She said, "I like that 'O' out
there." And I started laughing. She found out how that game
should be played. Oscar Robertson played the game like it should
be played. Oscar Robertson was some ballplayer. He could do it
all. He was only 6-5, but he could rebound, pass, his assists were
great, and he could score.
Hodak:
So tell me what hobbies you have in addition to following basketball.
Mollner:
Both my wife and I love golf. We play quite a bit of golf; we go on
trips and we play together. She belongs over here at Westlake Golf
Club, the women's club.
She plays sometimes on Tuesdays,
sometimes on Thursdays, and I have a regular foursome that plays
every Monday. I play with a couple of basketball players; Carl
Shy, who was in the Olympics with us, and Gene Rock who played
at USC. We play every other Thursday over at Downey. So we
play quite a bit of golf. We do a bit of traveling, and we do some
dancing. In fact, we just went to a dance up in Oxnard. And we
take in all the Olympic functions, which gives us a little traveling.
And we go to see our son in Vegas. We go there about six times a
year. We drive up and drive back and stay with them and we play
cards. I play poker every Wednesday night and we play bridge with
friends at different places. But we do like to travel. We haven't
traveled as much as we'd like to, but we will travel.
Hodak:
You mentioned the Olympic functions. What sense do you have of
the Olympic Movement and how it's changed?
36
Mollner:
Well, the one thing that strikes my wife and I as so odd is that I
was in the 1936 Olympics, and for the next 10 or 15 years we never
heard anything about the Olympics except when they'd come along.
Then, all of a sudden, nostalgia caught up or something. Now we
go to Olympic functions and we're invited to things. I just had an
invitation here to the Arco-Jesse Owens Games. Do you know what
that is?
Hodak:
The Arco-Jesse Owens Games in Los Angeles?
Mollner:
Yes. And I went to the last one, for kids, 9-14. They compete
and we help them give out the medals and so on and so forth.
They're real terrific. But the things we've been invited to are
absolutely fantastic in the last 8 to 10 years; before that, it was
nothing. Now there is much more interest in the Olympics and
Olympic athletes. We think it's great.
Hodak:
And what about the Olympic Movement itself?
Mollner:
Well, I think that's great too.
I think that in the Olympic
Movement, they have looked ahead to all the needs, the athletes are
treated great, they're really wined and dined, in a sense.
Everything is taken care of. But when we were at the Olympics in
Berlin, we got two dollars a week for laundry. When I look back on
i t , this to me doesn't make sense. And we were the richest country
in the world. And of course the Olympic Committee at that time,
with Avery Brundage, they were holier-than-thou. In other words,
they weren't going to give you two cents extra because it would
make you a pro. So why did they give us the two dollars?
Hodak:
You are lucky that you weren't doing your own laundry.
Mollner:
I can see that that's the way they were thinking. It just doesn't
make sense to me that this much, two dollars, is alright, but
anything over that will make you professional. That's not right.
Here they continue to compete with countries like Russia where all
37
their athletes are professional athletes.
from the government.
They get all their money
Hodak:
I think other countries outside of the Soviet Union also assist their
athletes.
Mollner:
Oh, they all do it. Why, absolutely, they pay them. They give
them an apartment, you know, and they pay for their food, their
clothing, everything. It's how you look at it.
Hodak:
I think that's a dilemma that will always be with the Olympics, in
terms of athletes competing on the same basis but within very
different national contexts.
Mollner:
They can't compete on the same level when they live in different
countries and have different lifestyles. It just isn't the same. If
they were all based at one place for four years and they all trained
there the same way, you'd get the pure champion. Russia has
proved that all you have to do is train with knowledgeable coaches,
eat the right food, get the right amount of sleep, rest, the right
training and so on, and you can become a champion. They have
proven that. I'm for them, I think that's great. If you want to
compete with that, then you have to do what they're doing there.
You have to do the same thing. I think it takes four years of
training for any athlete to win a gold medal in the Olympics—at least
four years of training.
I talked to John Naber when we were down in San Diego, and I
asked him about my son's little boy in Las Vegas. He's nine years
old and he's very taken with swimming and he's very good. He won
the best in his class as an eight-year-old in the state meets. He
does 100 push-ups every day. So I asked John Naber, who won
three gold medals in the '76 Olympics, "How long can you stay
motivated as a competitor to get in the Olympics?" He said, "Well,
gee, at nine years old, I don't know if he can stay motivated for
that long." I said, "How long did you train for when you won the
38
Olympics?" He said, "I tried out for the '72 Olympics and I didn't
make it.
When I climbed out of the pool, one of the other
competitors said, 'John, you've got a lot of potential, but if you
want to be an Olympic athlete you start right now for the next four
years.' I went home and thought about that and said, okay, I'll do
i t . " And he said, "I became an Olympic athlete." He said "Four
years, at the age I was at the time—that was tough. He says,
"You're talking to me about a nine-year-old boy who will have two
Olympics that he can get into. He can get in when he's 17, that'll
be eight years from now. He's got a long way to go; whether he
can stay motivated or not, it's hard to say. Everybody is an
individual. He might do i t . " Well, we've got a very unusual
grandson, believe me. He wants to be a swimmer. He made the
all-star team in baseball in his little league, but he quit baseball so
he could do his swimming. Now, you know he's motivated but not
whether he can stay motivated. Well, that's about it.
Hodak:
That's an interesting note to end on. I appreciate the chance to
have met you and it certainly has been nice visiting with you and
your wife. I really appreciate your hospitality Mr. Mollner.
Mollner:
Well, I'm glad to do it. I've enjoyed meeting you and talking with
you. You're very knowledgeable about basketball and all the sports
in the Olympics. I know you have competed, you have played and
competed against other good athletes and you know what it is to—
Hodak:
Well, my back knows it.
(laughter)
The Amateur Athletic
Foundation is also most appreciative of your cooperation and time.
Mollner:
Terrific!
Well, I'm glad to cooperate.
39
I've enjoyed it.